Portland Trail Blazers' Brandon Roy boosts team against Phoenix Suns

PORTLAND, Ore. - Phoenix was buckling Portland's knees again Saturday, taking a 17-10 lead, when Brandon Roy stood up from the far end of the Trail Blazers' bench to remove his warm-up pants.

The startling morning development that put Roy into uniform caught Portland fans off guard when he emerged for pregame shooting. The fans roared as Roy went to the scorer's table, with Blazers coach Nate McMillan saying he got chills at the Willis Reed moment. Or maybe a McMillan moment, for his inspiring Game 4 effort in the 1996 NBA Finals with Seattle despite back spasms.

"For my first game in a couple weeks, I thought I did OK," said Roy, the team's leading scorer this season with 21.5 points per game. "The biggest thing I was trying to do is make plays and try to test my knee out, and it was fine. Hopefully I'll play better next game and continue to take more pressure off these guys."

Once ruled out for the series, Roy proved to be a quick healer. McMillan said Roy had movement on the day of his surgery. A possibility of a Game 7 return surfaced. The date was moved up until Roy went through a five-on-five walk-through and two-on-two full-court workout at Friday's practice. He felt no pain but was badly out of shape. McMillan told Roy he would not play.

"Then it was phone calls all night," McMillan said. "He wanted to play bad."

The Blazers involved their owner, Paul Allen, and medical and basketball staffs as they wavered all Saturday morning.

"It lifted our team," McMillan said. "We finally got to playing basketball, scrapping. We matched their intensity, which we've been talking about the last two games, and challenged them. I felt like we were the aggressors."

Western Conference finals• Game 1: Monday, at Los Angeles, 6 p.m., TNT• Game 2: May 19, at Los Angeles, 6 p.m., TNT• Game 3: at US Airways Center, TBD• Game 4: at US Airways Center, TBD• Game 5:* at Los Angeles, TBD• Game 6:* at US Airways Center, TBD• Game 7:* at Los Angeles, TBD* - If necessary